Horses that can do what the horses did in the "President's Cup" are, in my flatland opinion, quite amazing.
To be able to train and condition for a ride like that, stay sound and somehow go like they go at the intense physical and emotional levels they put out is amazing to me.
You know me, I'd rather tax myself to the extreme than my horse, but given what those UAE horses go through to just get ready for the the speed and conditions of a ride like the PC, gee whiz, I hold the horses in the highest regard.
Now, again in my opinion, some human being over there is doing one heckuva job, don't you think, getting them prepared for the extreme measure of endurance they face.
The rides we have in this country run from the flat to the moutainous, the hot to the frigid, the sandy to the Salt Flats...you know what I mean. Endurance in this country is so varied, witness the underlying "my region is tougher than your region" exchange just in the AERC.
Dang, there are some great horses in the world.
Someone is conditioning them and getting them ready....
I still prefer what it is that BH100, Tevis, The Duck's Soup of Endurance, etc. has to offer...but, to see a horse canter over sand for those distances...Good Lord, it humbles me.
The ethics and morality of it all is something I fear I'm not qualified to argue...there are days when my geldings see me coming and run to the furtherest corner of the pasture...I still track 'em down and we go out and hammer (okay, "condition" is more PC.)
